Alexei Ulyukayev

BRUSSELS, July 11. /ITAR-TASS/. It is expected that Russia, Ukraine and the EU will set up a trilateral group for discussing the current outstanding issues, Russian Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev told reporters Friday during a break in the talks.

The group will most likely be formed before the end of the day, he said.

“I think somehow this will be a trilateral group,” Ulyukayev said. “But the format of its meetings will be variable — bipartite at some sessions and tripartite at other sessions, but anyway we’re going to set it up at a tripartite meeting.”

“At any rate, we’ll be able to conduct either bilateral discussions with the European Commission officials or Ukraine,” he said. “It looks like we’ve arranged it.”

Russia has all legal grounds to introduce measures aimed to protect its market if the association agreement between Ukraine and the European Union comes into force, Alexei Ulyukayev noted.

“Russia has lots of reasons and they, first of all, can be found in an annex to the free trade area agreement, which reads that if the implementation of certain agreements leads to an increase in imports, then the country has the right to introduce relevant restrictions,” Ulyukayev said.